The Spanish food distributor Red Eléctrica said that restoring electricity in large parts of the country after a massive and unprecedented breakdown on Monday which also reached Portugal could take 6 to 10 hours.
The company refused to speculate on the causes of the power failure. The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center published a statement saying that there was no sign that the failure was due to a cyber attack.
Eduardo Pieto, operations manager at Red Eléctrica, told journalists that he was unprecedented, calling for the “exceptional and extraordinary” event.
The breakdown struck Spain and Portugal, including their capitals, eliminating metro networks, telephone lines, traffic lights and automatic ticket distributors.
The authorities said that the cause was not immediately known, although a Portuguese official said that the problem seemed to be with the electricity distribution network in Spain.
Infographic showing the level of network connectivity in Spain since April 18, 2025.
Cléa Péculier and Sabrina Blanchard / AFP
The Portuguese cabinet summoned an emergency meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence, and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the electricity distributor Red Eléctrica to follow the restoration of grid operations efforts.
Countries have a population combined with more than 50 million people. It was not immediately clear how assigned were. It is rare to have such a widespread breakdown in the Iberian peninsula.
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A few hours later, the operator of the Spanish electricity network declared that he recovered electricity in the north and south of the peninsula, which would contribute to gradually restoring the supply of electricity to a national scale.
The Government of Portugal said that the breakdown seemed to come from problems outside the country, said an official of the national news agency Lusa.
“It seems that this is a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It is still checked,” said the Minister of the Cabinet Leitão Amaro.
The Portuguese distributor E-Redes said that the breakdown was due to “a problem with the European electrical system”, according to the Portuguese Journal Expresso. The company said that it had been forced to reduce power in specific areas to stabilize the network, according to Expresso.
The public broadcaster of Spain, RTVE, said that a major power failure has struck several regions of the country just after local time at noon, leaving its editorial room, the Spanish parliament in Madrid and metro stations across the country in darkness.
A graphic on the website of the Spanish electricity network showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop around 12:15 p.m. from 27,500 MW to almost 15,000 MW.
The video broadcast on Spanish television has shown that people evacuating metro stations in Madrid and empty stations with trains arrested in Barcelona.
The Madrid Open tennis game was suspended. Three games were underway when Power dropped.
The Spanish traffic service asked citizens to avoid using their cars as much as possible due to the power failure, which affected traffic lights and electrical signaling.
In Terrassa, an industrial city at 50 kilometers (31 miles) in Barcelona, the stores selling generators were out of stock after people aligned themselves to buy them.
The e-reports of Portugal said that some parts of France have also been affected.
In a country of some 10.6 million people, the breakdown hit the capital, Lisbon and the surrounding regions, as well as the parts of the North and the South. Portuguese police have put more officers in service to direct traffic and cope with increased help requests, including people trapped in elevators.
Portuguese hospitals and other emergency services have gone to generators. The service stations have stopped working and the trains stopped running.
The national authority of Portugal for emergencies and civil protection said that the emergency electricity systems worked.
Several Lisbon metro cars have been evacuated, according to information. Still in Portugal, the courts arrested work and automatic tickets of tickets and electronic payment systems were assigned. The traffic lights in Lisbon have stopped working.
It was not possible to make calls on mobile phones networks, although some applications work.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
